I lately don't have time for creating art but I thought I would dump some unnecessary artworks from my portfolio.

Based on what I see every day on different websites and based on comments I get on my concepts I came to conclusion that my characters lower the overall quality of my art and are pulling me back. I done tons of anatomy studies from books and photos but maybe the reason is lack of model life drawing. Also I feel like I don't have so good design sense for characters. I seriously consider dumping most of my character designs and focusing more on environments (for a while at least). I would still put some figures into them (maybe some more middle-shots like in pic number 7 below). Also I wonder if it would be good to make some more environment concept that have strong storytelling so that they could also serve as illustrations. What do you think?

I suspected that with surfaces but it's sometimes hard to see it when you look at your work every day. I'll try do do more life studies with focus on different speculars._________________Carbonmade portfolio / Blog

Sukhoi makes a really good point about the material, difficult stuff that. hmm?
btw sukhoi your site doesn't work for me?
...keeps refreshing without content...weird?
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I think you have some interesting stuff posted here but you talked about anatomy....
I would say use it more and exaggerate upon it with your characters, make shoulders a bit wider and make it more edgy where the bone parts are, however I am not that good with it anymore; after all though, all that anatomy stuff I made some years back still makes you become sensitive to it.
lol, oh well.
What I noticed in your pieces is that you can apply more cast shadow, not darker but Cast shadow where it needs attention.
Cast shadow can boost your composition so look for where you can add depth with cast shadow.
Also, you can lead the eye with structures on the ground, clouds or every kind of surface really.

Sukhoi - Thanks. I just always can't decide if I want desaturated earthy tones or something totally the opposite. I equally like both

Godzilla Likes Grapefruit - Thanks for your comment.
In that futuristic policeman picture I focused a lot on light and modeling the form but totally forgot about strong dynamic silhouette. It's pretty old piece and I know I could pull out something better now. I'll have to replace this with something new in near future.
I think I know what you mean with those cast shadows. They can break plain surfaces a bit and make the environment more interesting.

hmm that's odd?
it is not re-directing, just keeps pinging on sukhoi's site.... the technoveu works though.
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Yea it is the plain surfaces that sure is the tricky part, I feel there should still be calm spots in every piece.
I struggle with balance, feels to me depth is the most important.
...But that must be the new 3d influence from movies that is getting to me, Lmao.

I put more focus on depth too and I sometimes feel like try to make my environments too much of 3d rendering . The soft shadows and playing with light falloff probably comes from that. It can be realistic but it also makes things a bit dull. That's why I later focused a lot on patterns like in thumbnail 1 which break things into smaller shapes.
Playing with cast shadows is something I haven't fully explored though.